MAP6 at BOP

MAP6 were delighted to be part of BOP (the annual photobook festival from Martin Parr Foundation) this year, hosted at the Paintworks in Bristol. It was a busy weekend, where it was a joy to talk photography, photobooks and make new friends.

MAP6 members Barry Falk, Richard Chivers and Paul Walsh

BOP – Books on Photography – is the annual photobook festival from Martin Parr Foundation and held in Bristol across the second weekend of October. The festival brings together a wide-ranging group of photobook publishers, artist talks, exhibitions, book signings, events, street food, coffee and beer.

BOP is held across Martin Parr Foundation and the Paintworks Event Space, all located within a short walk of each other at Paintworks, BS4.

Martin Parr Foundation
316 Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR

Paintworks Event Space
The Airstream Main Courtyards, Paintworks, Bristol BS4 3EH

You can discover more about the festival on the BOP website here

 
 

Paul Walsh & Barry Falk Book Launch

MAP6 members Paul Walsh and Barry Falk will be hosting an evening to launch their books at The Photobookcafe in London. Paul Walsh will be sharing insights into his book 'Walking With Strangers' recently published by Another Place Press, and Barry Falk will be sharing his book ‘In Search of Amnesia’, published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg.

Both photographers touch upon a number of interconnected themes with this work, including exploring sacred pilgrimages sites, collective memory and personal loss, transgenerational trauma and religious identity. With both book projects the theme of connecting with others has been key: for Paul it was encountering and connecting with people whilst walking, who were seeking to overcome major life events and find something that was missing from their lives; for Barry it was seeking traces of a once vibrant Jewish narrative, that has largely disappeared from Eastern Europe, by meeting the various custodians of memory: the historians, conservationists, archivists, forensic archaeologists, tour guides, academics and the visiting Jewish people tracing their family genealogy.

Paul’s project follows a number of Camino Pilgrimage routes, beginning at the town of Le Puy en Velay in southern France and ending 1700km later at the town of Muxia on the west coast of Spain; Barry travelled through southeast Poland and northwest Ukraine, following the old Chasidic Rabbi routes that led to surprising synagogues and rivers and transportation lines that inevitable led to the death camps. For both photographers the act of travelling to the places of original trauma and potential spirituality, treading in the footsteps of others, past and present, led to a deep sense of connection and understanding that informed the final projects.

For this event Paul and Barry will be sharing further insights into their projects, as well as signing copies of their book.

Space is limited, but you can reserve a place for the event here.

MAP6 at BPF24

Photo Fringe 2024 Collectives Hub: Common Ground

Phoenix Art Space
10-14 Waterloo Place
Brighton
BN2 9NB

5 Oct-17 Nov, Wed-Sun 12-5pm
closed Mon-Tue

FREE

Eight photography collectives have been selected for this year's Collectives Hub exhibition at Phoenix Art Space, each presenting a different approach to image-making and to this year’s festival theme “Common Ground”.

An important part of Photo Fringe since 2014, the Collectives Hub has consistently formed one of the most visible, visited and critically acclaimed exhibitions of our biennial festival.

The MAP6 Collective will be exhibiting Wales : The Landscape Project as a muti-media installation at this years Brighton Photo Fringe, with all MAP6 photographers exhibiting work.

Come along on the opening night October 4th!.

The seven other selected collectives for the Hub are :

● Brighton Queer Photographers Collective
● Emic Collective
● Flowers of Lilith
● HOLD
● Iris Collective
● London Alternative Photography Collective
● Rethinking Eastern Europe

Meet Up and Talk with MAP6

Photo Fringe Meet Up and Talk with MAP6 Photography Collective

Took place on Tuesday 6 August 2024

Phoenix Art Space, White Room, Waterloo Place, Brighton
6pm-8pm (talk at 6.30pm)

David Sterry - FINLAND: The Happiness Project

Barry Falk - FINLAND: The Happiness Project

Recently four members from the MAP6 Collective, Rich Cutler, Chloe Lelliott, Barry Falk and David Sterry, discussed their practice and shared work from various projects spanning the past thirteen years of working together. They also shared insights into the collective experience and how they've played with collaboration and themes throughout various projects and locations, presenting publications and exhibitions in diverse venues, as well as exhibiting with Brighton Photo Fringe.

Chloe Lelliott - FINLAND: The Happiness Project

Rich Cutler - WALES: The Landscape Project

Doors opened in Phoenix’s Canvas Café before and after the talk, for meeting with the photographers and offering a chance to ask questions about putting on an exhibition and/or event with the upcoming Brighton Photo Fringe festival.

More information via Eventbrite

Paul Walsh - New Book

MAP6 photographer Paul Walsh has been working with Another Place Press to publish his new book Walking with Strangers. The book is about his three month walk across France and Spain along the network of pilgrimage routes, capturing the people and landscapes he encountered. The book is available as both a standard or special edition with print signed by the artist. You can purchase your copy here.

“I set out across the network of walking trails through France and Spain to experience the increasingly popular phenomenon of long-distance pilgrimage. I walked continuously for three months, beginning at the town of Le Puy-en-Velay in southern France, and ending 1700 kilometres later at the town of Muxía on the west coast of Spain.

Along the way I made many transient friendships with other pilgrims. Although some were walking for religious purposes or the physical challenge, most I encountered were walking to overcome a major event that had happened to them, or to find something that was missing from their life. Walking facilitated new relationships as we talked side by side. Sharing the experience of being in unfamiliar places and having to find our way brought about a unique connection with those I had only just met. The monotony of walking day after day, the physical discomfort and the sense of isolation were made more bearable when not alone. Daily rituals such as eating and finding a place to sleep took on another meaning; they became goals to be strived for and shared.

After months of travelling with my belongings on my back I discovered that, through separation from all that is familiar, walking helped people to find liberty from their complex identities and social obligations back home. The path seemed to untether people, drawing them together and giving them a common goal. The surrounding landscape became a geographical space for self-reflection and change. The photographs I made during those three months not only depict the people and landscapes that I encountered but also convey the transformations that were taking place within me as I walked.”

Barry Falk & Paul Kemp Exhibition

Barry Falk & Paul Kemp

HOME

Bringing together the projects The Circle and Worthing, A Portrait of a Town

Colonnade House, 47 Warwick Street, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 3DH

Tuesday 13th - Sunday 18th August 2024

More information is available here

MAP6 photographer Barry Falk will be showing images from his Circle Project - as part of the Home exhibition by Paul Kemp and himself, opening at Colonnade House, Worthing on 13th Aug - 18th Aug 2024

This exhibition brings together two photographers who are involved in looking at and documenting the idea of home. Barry Falk’s project looks at his family’s connection to an area in northwest London called Belmont Circle, and Paul Kemp’s work documents different aspects of Worthing. Both photographers seek to explore time and place by looking at personal history, memory of home, present manifestation of place, and with a sense of things in time and how present time would look like as the past.

Alongside the exhibition MAP6 photographer Barry Falk will also be running a workshop on 17 August on the theme of home, using archival images to look at family stories. The workshop will take the idea of the family album and reframe it as a piece of art. By sequencing images, participants will explore ideas such as nostalgia, memory, and how images can frame both authentic and false narratives.

During the workshop people will explore ways of putting together family photos and archival images that create a narrative. By carefully considering sequencing and juxtaposition of images we will think about how we tell a story through pictures and consider what image communicate when juxtaposed with one another.

You can book a place on the workshop here

Guest Feature - Leon Düllberg

The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park is the largest national park between the North Cape and Sicily. It is home to more than 10,000 different species and offers protection for numerous native seabirds that use the extensive salt marshes as breeding grounds. Nowhere else in the world has a more diverse landscape developed through the influence of the tides. Despite its designation as a national park and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Wadden Sea is exposed to numerous threats. Above all, overuse and the consequences of global warming are damaging many animal and plant species and leading to drastic changes within the ecosystems.

The work “Wadden Sea” shows the people who research these changes and are committed to preserving the unique flora and fauna in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park.

Leon Düllberg is a portrait and documentary photographer from northern Germany. Currently he is finishing his photography studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. His work is focused on the relationship between people and their environment and sets a particular focus on ecological issues. This is also the case with his current work “Im Watt”, which deals with the influence of global warming on the local ecosystems in the Wadden Sea National Park in northern Germany

leonduellberg

MAP6 Return to Italy

The MAP6 Collective are delighted to share the news that we will soon be returning to Italy to continue our latest body of work. We are currently organising the second part of the project with the intention of exhibiting and publishing the work. For the project we have been exploring the landscape of the Veneto Valley, a region in Italy centred around its capital of Venice. This is the first project where we have worked solely within a specific region of a country. We have also been working closely with project partners Urbanautica, Lab27 and The Benetton Foundation and look forward to continuing our collaboration together. Although at this time we can’t share any of the work we have made, below are some behind the scenes images of us making and editing work. More news will be coming soon…

Aaron Yeandle - Upcoming Exhibition

MAP6 photographer Aaron Yeandle is currently working on a large-scale African Community project which is supported by Art for Guernsey and will be exhibited in their art Gallery at the beginning of June 2024. The African Guernsey Photographic project is intended to be a positive reflection, of our ever-changing communities. This photographic project aims to bring positive awareness and celebrate the diversity of the African community and cultures, which plays a large part in Guernsey’s society. This body of work is a social heritage project, which will become a photographic archival record, of the ever-changing fleeting moments of our social history. The African Community project comprises of intimate portraits, of people from many different African countries who now live and work in Guernsey. Its essence lies in the imperative to shine a beacon of positive awareness upon the vibrant African communities, now flourishing within Guernsey. Furthermore, to appreciate and celebrate the rich cultures and heritage that the individuals bring from their respective African homelands. It is a source of immense pride for us to undertake this compelling photographic project and exhibition. One that brings together Guernsey and the African communities. Photography, as a medium, wields the remarkable power to unite. It harmoniously weaves the intricate threads of our ever-evolving social fabric. Over the years, Aaron has embarked on a significant photographic journey, delving into the intricate tapestry of Guernsey’s social history and heritage. However, his latest body of work holds a deeply personal resonance. It stands as an artistic testament to the profound importance it bears, not just for Aaron, but for both the Guernsey and African communities involved.

People from all over Africa are invited to participate in the African Community Project. It would be wonderful if you or your family and friends would be interested in taking part in this unique and historical event and have your portrait taken for the forthcoming, exhibition. Aaron is still looking for volunteers, so if you are interested in finding out more about the African Guernsey Community Photography Project, please contact him via email: aaronyeandle@gmai.com

Paul Walsh - New Project

For the past two years MAP6 photographer Paul Walsh has been working on a new series called ‘A Point in Time’.


”Since relocating to the region of Suffolk in England, I’ve been repeatedly walking this small stretch of coastline. It’s a place that I initially discovered ten years ago, when I walked the Suffolk Coastal Path, and since then have come to know intimately. When I first passed through here I remember the area had a profoundly melancholic effect on me, yet I wasn’t quite sure why. So I vowed to return to try to understand it, form some kind of connection with the place and make work. So for the past two years I’ve been observing and capturing the subtle changes in the landscape. I’ve been interested in capturing life cycles and smaller signs of the origins of life, amidst the dark rivers and rock pools that are found within the marshes leading down to the sea. The land here is a mosaic of gentle land form that is shaped by water in a slow but ceaseless passage of time.”

With each new project I start by thinking how I can approach it through walking. Usually I find myself walking between two separate points, A to B, a beginning and end of a linear journey. With this series it was about walking the same, small stretch of coastline over and over, back and forth, to observe and document the changes that were taking place.

Paul will finish working on the series in early 2024, before shaping an edit of the work. You can keep updated on the project and see more of Paul’s work on his website here.

Guest Feature - Dunstan Baker

In Architecture of the Outer Hebrides, Dunstan Baker is in the early stages of an exploration of the predominantly utilitarian architecture of the Outer Hebrides. For the project he has an interest in whether and how the apparent egalitarian nature of buildings engenders a sense of community cohesion.

Dunstan Baker studied Documentary Photography at University of Wales, Newport – BA (Hons), 1998–2001 – before working as a graphic designer in the publishing and advertising industries. In 2008 he launched a fine art reproduction and exhibition printing company based in Bristol, working with a large and varied stable of artists and publishers, dedicated to producing highest-quality work. Alongside this he continued his photographic practice, and designed and produced a number of books – most notably for Pimpernel Press, a London-based horticultural publisher, twice winning Sunday Times Gardening Book of the Year with books written by Isabel & Julian Bannerman. He closed the print studio in 2019 to focus on combining his two great interests: photography and architecture.

greygray.co.uk

Guest Feature - Mouli Paul

Upon returning home after a year of studying in England, I developed a curiosity to explore and document my hometown - the intimacies, the mystique in the mundane, the people, and the textures that defined the place for what it is. It had always been beautiful yet home needs to accept me for me to love back. In my 10 years of being a photographer, I never felt like documenting my family and my hometown. It was almost like a light bulb moment when I met my father after a year. This place was rapidly changing and I wanted to capture it before everything changed. I observed how the environment and the spaces inhabited were a container for so much - shared histories, friendships, stories of the Bangladesh partition, triumphs, and tragedies. I did travel back home now and then but never stayed beyond a week.

This is a continuation of the project 'Textures of Belonging', a work about making and activating memories of home and using photography to bring out the diaspora voices, the “non-belonging others” who are trying to find a sense of belonging in an alienated space. Strongly drawing on the notions of home and belonging, my search was about the idea of home. Coming back, I realized that I was born right here, in this sleepy little town of West Bengal, away from the highly pretentious city life. Surprising as it might sound, even after living in cities for over two decades, I could never feel as if I belonged there, similar to what my mother had experienced. I kept looking for those connections and emotions everywhere I went only to find them back here. This is my way of representing this re-connection with home.

Mouli Paul is a photographer from India who recently finished studying an MA in Photography from Arts University Plymouth. Her work revolves around notions of home and belonging, family archives, and mental health bordering between documentary and fine art. She has recently started working through the process of analog which allows her to slow down, the opposite of what she does with her commercial photography.

moulipaul.com

Portraits of Intimacy

We are delighted to announce that MAP6 members Leia Ankers and Heather Shuker have been shortlisted for Portraits of Intimacy for The Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards. The KLPA is an annual global portrait photography prize seeking the very best and fresh entries from photographers. Initiated in 2009, KLPA is recognised as a significant and vital award in the photography calendar, supporting and rewarding contemporary portraiture practice especially in the South East Asian region. 

Heather’s finalist image 

From the series Kolonko about young sex workers in a safe house in Sierra Leone. 

I met with the girls inside the safe house.  The girls range from just 12 years old to mid 20s orphaned from the Ebola outbreak in 2014-15. Each girl spoke about experiences on the street and their fears and about their hopes and dreams for the future. The portraits are intentionally dark and show just a glimpse of each girl to conceal their identity. This was not requested, however, it was my chosen approach. All the portraits were also made within the two dark and tiny rooms where up to 20 girls will bed down for some sleep in between working on the streets, going to school and sharing chores within the safe house. The darkness is part of the girls’ life both at night and sleeping in the dark tiny room away from the sunlight of the day.

You can see more of the project on Heather’s website

Leia’s finalist image 

This portrait from my series ‘The Same As You’ which was instigated and informed from having a disability myself as I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age 3. When I hit my teens, this had a substantial impact; I felt quite secluded when I began secondary school as each year I would be off school for a long period of time after my operations. These personal differences from a young age introduced me to the experience of stigma, of being the ‘Other’ and as I got older I decided I wanted to take this into my photographic work. I wanted to change the way that people with dual sensory impairment and additional disabilities are perceived by society. This is how ‘The Same As You’ began. I met Cordelia through Birgit who is a friend of my mothers. Birgit is Cordelia’s carer and as a result of their closeness and bond, I was also able to build a connection and relationship with her. Cordelia is blind in one eye, deaf and has cerebral palsy. Cordelia’s independence is easiest achieved in water as she can move alone without the support of her wheelchair. The hydrotherapy pool is Cordelia’s place of freedom and this is the reason why her portrait took place there; it portrays her personality and allows her to be seen how she wants to be.

You can see more of the project on Leia’s website

You can view the Portraits of Intimacy Finalist Gallery here

The exhibition of Portraits of Intimacy will be shown at Exposure + Photo Festival in Kuala Lumpur. The exhibition starts on the 16 September - 01 October at Temu House

New MAP6 Project

The MAP6 Collective are very excited to embark on our next project at the start of June 2023. We will be exploring the landscape of the Veneto Valley, a region in Italy centred around its capital of Venice. This is the first project where the MAP6 Collective have worked within a specific region of a country. We will also be working with project partners Urbanautica and Lab27, more news coming very soon…

Richard Chivers Exhibition

Richard Chivers: OFF-Grid
Gareth Gardner Gallery
Enclave 10, 50 Resolution Way
London SE8 4AL

16 June–02 July. Please check nearer the time and on social media for opening times.

Soundtrack to the exhibition by DJ/Mucic maker Solomon Onyemere.

PRIVATE VIEW 15 JUNE 2023, 6PM–9PM. RSVP HERE.

Part of London Festival of Architecture 2023.

Since the Victorian era, circular gas holders became commonplace industrial icons on our urban skylines. The design of vast telescoping tanks to store coal (town) gas was at the vanguard of civil engineering. They represented a modernising Britain, and for three decades after World War II were visible icons of our nationalised utilities, metal symbols for a vital infrastructure held in common for the public good.

In 1965, North Sea natural gas was discovered. The UK supply network was converted from coal gas, and gas holders were only required for additional storage. As network capacity grew, gas holder utilisation dwindled.

By the 1990s they were redundant; widespread dismantling of the metal giants began in 2000.

MAP6 photographer Richard Chivers has spent eight years capturing these iconic structures before they disappear.

Many have distinctive and intricate designs, each slightly different. Although defunct, those remaining continue to act as prominent landmarks, provoking a debate about their preservation and reuse. They are a reminder of our industrial heritage, a communal architectural experience that provokes awe in a way that few other structures inspire.

New Publication and Book Launch

MAP6 are delighted to share our new publication WALES: The Landscape Project. The work explores different aspects of the Welsh landscape, where nine photographers collaborated as pairs, plus one set of three, making images and joint editorial decisions together. The results are four succinct, photographic responses in zine form inspired by the distinctive landscape and character of Wales. The publication packages all four 40 pp zines within a belly band, with an accompanying text card. For this publication we had the opportunity to work with Iain Sarjeant from Another Place Press. We commissioned Iain to bring his unique vision and expertise to further help sequence and layout the zines, adding another form of collaboration to the project. The publication is a limited edition of 50, and we are already down to our last few, so thank you to everyone who has already purchased a copy.

We launched the publication on Saturday 22/4 at The Photobook Cafe in Shoreditch, London. It was a fun evening in a packed venue, thanks to everyone that came along. Thanks also to Dilly Thain, Specialist Sales Assistant at The Photographers' Gallery bookshop responsible for the zine/small press section, for chairing a conversation about the work and benefits of zine making over traditional photobook publishing. Another thanks to Matt Martin and the guys at TPC for being brilliant hosts and putting on the event. If you get a chance and your in London, why not pop in to The Photobook cafe, its a fab place with a wonderful selection of Photobooks. You can also see WALES: The Landscape Project on display.

Guest Feature - Ralph Steinegger

In the early morning light, lone figures are standing along rivers and canals, under bridges and highways, dwarfed by rows of residential towers and construction sites. In the midst of a built environment meant to liberate men from the constraints of nature, they cast their rods in silence. Standing still, as to be almost indiscernible, they seem oblivious of their surroundings and solely remain focused on the small stretch of water in front of them. We see them in the most unexpected places, finding personal space against the odds, and quietly waiting for their line to tighten. 

Ralph Steinegger (b. 1976) has lived in Beijing, New York, Istanbul, Singapore and now Shanghai. He is using his analogue cameras to document mostly cities and show their contradictions, hidden sides, and poetry. 

ralphsteinegger.com

The Photographers Gallery Takeover

Last weekend MAP6 were delighted to take over The Photographers Gallery Instagram feed. ⁠You can check out the new work we shared, and we’d be delighted to hear your comments and feedback.Visit the TPG IG feed here

MAP6.png